Creating a document library

Depending on your level of enthusiasm when it comes to SharePoint, this video may apply to you.In many organizations, your typical employee or end-user of SharePoint may be asked if theywish to be a subject matter expert or a champion for their respective team or department.In this role, you may have elevated permissions and abilities, which means you'll need toknow more than everyone else.So let's look at how you go about creating a document library on a SharePoint site.In the top left corner of the site page, you'll see an option for Site Actions.

If I click on the button, new options appear.And I'm going to go ahead and click on New Document Library.In this Create window, there are all sorts of options to pick from that will allow youto customize the document library that you're about to create.First, we need to give it a name.As an example, I'm going to call this one Marketing Collateral.I can also type in a description if I'd like.Just below this area is a navigation area, and it's asking if I want to include thisnew document library in the quick launch.

To remind you, the Quick Launch is located here on the left side of the window.Should I add it here, it would appear on all pages within the site.I'm going to go ahead and enable the No option, and just below that, we have the Document Version History.Here, if I select Yes, it's saying that any file contained in this document library whenedited will automatically create a new version for that file.This is a very important topic that we'll be talking about a lot more in a later movie.At the bottom of this window is the Document Template area.

This addresses more advanced functionality that is outside the scope of this course.So, we're ready now to go ahead and click on Create.And here we are in our brand-new document library.One of the first things we'll look at here is the metadata that you see along the top.By default, we have Type, Name, Modified, and Modified By.If we want to add another piece of metadata to this document library, here in the Ribbon bar,we can click on the Create Column.

This will bring up a Column window where I'm able to insert a new tag for this library.As an example, here in Column Name, I'm going to go ahead and type Status.I'm going to make this a choice field.Now, let's click on the Choice option here and then scroll down here in the window.I can type a description that everyone will see when they upload files to the library.And as well, these are the different choices for Status that I can select from.I'm going to select those, hit Delete, and let's type in Draft, Out for Review, and Final as an example.

I'm going to scroll down.I have an option here to set a default value, and currently it's set to Draft, which is fine, and I'll click OK.Now, you'll notice in the top right a new column called Status that's been added tothe document library, reflecting the choice we just made on the previous column screen.Document libraries are a very important part of SharePoint, and the associated metadatareally needs to be thought out and planned to ensure the right kind of information is captured.As a SharePoint champion, it's a good idea to meet with the team using the library tomake sure their needs are met.

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Author

Released

10/19/2012

Discover how to manage your documents more efficiently with SharePoint 2010. In this course, author and SharePoint consultant Mark Abdelnour provides a quick introduction to the SharePoint interface and then moves into uploading and editing files, creating views, using collaboration tools, and working with tools like calendars and task lists in the SharePoint document workspaces.

An ideal primer for those new to SharePoint, this course demonstrates how to use the platform to accomplish your daily tasks.